From Beneath the Tidal Waves
by Riniel Haerion
Summary: All Anders wanted to do was defy his brother Mike, whether it was not being able to go out of the city, or not being allowed to go to the surface. Mike told nothing but tales of how humans were dangerous people who should not be approached. But soon enough Anders accidentally stumbles upon a rather interesting man... (Parody of the Little Mermaid
1. Prologue: The Palomosi and The Lanosians

This story begins a very long, long time ago. Before your great-great-great grandparents were even born, and before you and I were ever even thought about. This story begins in the island of New Zealand, but much longer before it was ever even known as that. In this tale, it was simply the Land. And in this Land two very, very different groups of people lived and prospered there. The first of these peoples where very much like you and I. They were called Lanosians, and they were very human, and lived in the very middle of the Land. They were very proud, and very prosperous in their time. The stranger of the two, the ones that were very unfamiliar to us and the Lanosians themselves, were the Palomosi.

Palomosi lived on the coasts of the land, and practically lived in it's waters. They looked human-like, but they had very unique characteristics. Their eyes tended to always be green or blue, and various shades inbetween. Their hands were webbed in between their long fingers, and small gills on their necks. Many Palomosi claimed that as soon as a child was born, they were thrown in the ocean and swam as well any adult Palomosi. The Palomosi had a spiritual connection with the waters, and couldn't bear to ever leave the coasts of the Land to move closer inland where the Lanosians lived.

Because of this, many Lanosians rarely saw Palomosi, and the few who did catch a glimpse of these strange peoples constantly told stories of them. Because the stories were oft told by word of mouth, many stories were changed drastically from their original tellings. Many Lanosians told of a people who were more monster than human. Adults whispered to each other about how the Palomosi were a crass, barbaric race who mated with fish. Parents told children stories of how the Palomosi could turn themselves into hideous sea creatures who could crawl out of wells and devour naughty children who didn't mind their parents. But one thing that the Lanosians were jealous of were the singing voices of the Palomosi. They could carry the sweetest tunes in all of the Land, and many say that the Landosians only said these foul things from the jealousy that they contained within them for the Palomosi singing voice.

But the Palomosi were indeed a magical race, more connected to the land and sea than the Lanosians ever were. That's when they knew something terrible was soon going to fall upon them. The Palomosi could often sense when a storm approached, but none before had felt so unsettled about an incoming storm than they had in those times. It was so unsettling that many indeed started running inland, trying to find shelter with the Lanosians or warning the ones that lived closer to the coasts to go inland because of something that was going to happen.

But the Lanosians ignored them, or did not allow them shelter. Many chased the Palomosi back to the coasts where they belonged. And soon, the day fell upon them, where the ground shook horribly, and a huge tidal wave much higher than anything they had seen before surged above them, and crashed onto the coasts and further in. Palomosi and many Lanosians alike were swept away in the dangerous waves of water. Many, if not all the Lanosians who were swept away in the waters died, but the Palomosi all took in their magical roots, and many turned into fish and swam away to the deepest parts of the oceans to continue there lives. But some seemed to only transform halfway, and have the tail of a fish but were still half human.

Some Palomosi, those who escaped to the inland and stayed hidden, did all they could to blend in with the Lanosians. They knew that if the Lanosians found out what they were, they would kill them or throw them out into the treacherous sea to join their (presumed dead) brothers and sisters. They would take sharp rocks and cut off the webbing from their fingers and used clays and other materials to plug up their gills. Many said that when they had children who looked too Palomosi, they'd end up doing all they could to get rid of the child, or do what they could to cover them up to make them look as Landosian as they could.

The Land was much smaller than it had been before, with the lands of the Palomosi now underwater. After many years, no one thought of the Palomosi or what happened to them, and the Lanosians moved closer to the coasts of the Land. They soon saw the benefits of the ocean, not spiritually, but for profit. They'd catch and sell fish, and anything they could find that could be worth money. They all prospered and created huge castles and villages, and the name Lanosians soon became a thing past. They were simply humans. But soon tales of what could only be Palomosi started popping up again, from the mouths of sailors who often ventured out into sea.

They told of these beautiful creatures with bright blue or green eyes, and the tails of fish who would come up above land and lure unsuspecting sailors with the sounds of their voice. The sailors who were lured were never seen again, and they could only presume that these strange people (who they called merpeople, or more often, mermaids) dragged the poor sailors underneath the water until they died. Many children believed that they were fair beautiful creatures who simply wanted to befriend the humans, but did not realize they could not breathe underwater. And even more people on the newly named New Zealand simply scoffed at the idea of merpeople existing. But there were very, very few, who said that a human who had a draw to the sea unlike any other feeling had the old Palomosi blood in their veins from the hidden Palomosi who had survived in the land.

But beneath the waters, there was an entire civilization. Huge spiraling underwater castles with the Palomosi that had been long forgotten swimming in and out of homes, bustling along their business just like the people in the land above them. This sprawling underwater city was simply known as Palmonia. They were as aware about the humans as the humans were of them. The original Palomosi who first arrived in the waters were long gone, much like the Lanosians were now a thing of the past.

Now the true story, begins in the huge castle of Palmonia. Of a particular blond merboy who many claimed had the sweetest voice of all the merpeople, but had a habit of breaking his eldest brother's very strict rules that were placed on the younger brothers. This blond merboy was currently sneaking out of the castle into the open sea where merpeople rarely ventured. His older brother had recently told him that he was no longer allowed to go out of the city, because of the dangers that there were.

But Anders, the sly merboy that he was, completely ignored his brothers wishes for no other reason than wanting to defy him. He found excitement in never listening to Mike, who was often to busy with ruling the kingdom to actually punish Anders properly for breaking the rules. He smirked as he reached the very edge of Palmonia, where the beautiful lights ended and dark blue abyss set in. He knew exactly where he was going, and he swam on.


	2. Something Up There

Anders looked around. No one was around, which was lucky. Many of them had to be up at the castle or nearby in preparation for the festival that was going to be happening soon. That meant that no one had been keeping a close eye on Anders as they usually did per Mike's command. Anders couldn't help but scoff at that. Mike had the nerve to make sure that everyone kept an eye out for him so he wouldn't escape the city again like he was some little tadpole who still needed watching. Ever since both their parents died, Mike had been hellbent on making sure no one approached the surface or left the city unless they had good reason to. Anders of course, never was one to follow the rules, so as soon as they had been in place, Anders had snuck out of the city.

That's all it had been at first, just doing things to bother Mike and make him angry. But soon enough after finding strange objects that seemed to have just fallen into the waters that Anders called home, he couldn't help but develop a strange fascination with the world above them. Anders had been swimming on autopilot, and already he was groping along large rocks, until he slipped through a small entrance that he knew Mike would never be able to find. After squeezing through the crack between the rocks, Anders fell into a large cavern, well-lit from the surface above him. In it were various things that he had managed to find on his secret little outings away from Palmonia.

He couldn't help but swim around in excitement, looking at all the things that he had collected. He just wished they knew what they actually were. As he was looking through assorted bits of his treasures he couldn't help but let out a few random notes from a song he had learned a few days ago. It had been awhile since he had actually gone to the surface in search of things, and so he quickly decided to do it, and he grabbed a bag and swam up through the large hole in the cavern's roof and speed up towards the surface.

He gasped when his head broke the surface, the cold air attacking his face. The sky was dark and murky, and he could hear rumbles of thunder in the distance. "A storm..." He breathed.

Storms were the best time to find things, because stuff always fell off of ships during storms. Anders almost immediately spotted a ship a ways away. He was going to swim out towards it until he felt a certain unease. He shivered, and felt the waves grow rougher. He ducked down underwater again, and started swimming to where the ship was. He swam up and broke through the surface again, only to be pushed back a couple feet from a strong wave.

"Fuck!" He couldn't help but curse after being submerged again underwater. "That storm is definitely a lot worse than your usual storm.

He started lowering himself after the shadow of the ship loomed above him, and he could already see objects falling down into the water. Despite obvious reasons why he should go near the ship, he swam up closer and managed to catch a few of the things falling. A few more little metal things, twirly bits, and pieces of wood mostly. Anders was just putting a rather interesting looking instrument thing into his bag, and without realizing, he had started floating nearer to the surface without realizing. It wasn't until he heard an even louder splash that he realized how close he was.

His eyes widened in panic when he saw what caused the noise. A man, who seemed to be unconscious was slowly floating down into the depths of the sea. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He whispered in a frenzy as he shot after the man and grabbed him by his arms. He tried to swim up, but that was proving to be very difficult with the weight of the man, and without the help from his webbed hands to propel him upwards. He quickly shifted the weight of the man and put him on his back, and he was able to swim somewhat better. His arms ached when he broke the surface of the water again, and the waves threw him closer and closer to shore.

"Shit...Where's the ship?" He looked around.

Had the waves thrown him that far off? Well, he couldn't dwell on the fact that much. He had to get this guy onto the shore before he died. Anders ignored the pain in his arms and swam to the shore, collapsing under the weight of the man. He pushed the man up and sat up on the shore. Despite being tired and having just saved a man, he couldn't help but giggle a bit and play with the sand. It felt weird, probably because it was so...dry. But he quickly dropped it and dragged himself closer to look at the man.

"Huh...So you're...human." He muttered, picking up the mans hand and staring at fingers and noting that his hands weren't webbed.

He put his own hand next to it for reference, pouting a bit noticing how much smaller his hand seemed to be in comparison. The man seemed quite a bit older than Anders himself, as he had silver hair. Anders couldn't help but wonder what color his eyes were. He felt excited. Maybe if he stayed until the man woke up, and somehow managed to not scare him, he could ask him all the questions that he had about humans. He hummed to himself lightly, before breaking out into the same song he had been singing in his secret cavern. He couldn't help it, everyone told him he had one of the best singing voices. He got so into it that he didn't even notice the man stirring. In fact, the first thing that startled him was a pain in his tail, and he gasped in horror when he realized it seemed to be splitting in two.

"Damn!" He started pushing himself into the water again, and he only looked up to see the man open his eyes widely before he disappeared into the water. He panicked and checked his tail again in time to witness it slowly mend itself. "Whoa...What the fuck?" Anders muttered to himself, looking over his tail again wondering if this was all his imagination.

"Anders, there you are! What the hell are you doing so close the the shore, you know Mike doesn't want us here!" Anders turned to see a very concerned looking Ty, with his grey-blue tail flashing in the light from the surface.

All of Anders previous worries melted away, and a smirk replaced his scared-looking features. "Well, I don't really give a damn what Mike says."

Ty rolled his eyes. "And anyways you're supposed to be practicing for the festi—Shit! Anders your arm is bleeding!"

Anders paused and looked at his own arm, and sure enough there were clouds of blood coming from his arm. He let out a rather unmanly shriek as Ty quickly grabbed a random piece of cloth that Anders had salvaged from his bag and quickly tied it around the wound. Ty sighed again as Anders quickly swam away from the bloody area of water with a look of disgust.

"I hate blood..." He muttered.

Ty rolled his eyes. "We have to go back, so Mike doesn't end up sending out half of Palmonia to look for you. I still wonder how you even manage to escape when you always look so flashy." Ty eyed Anders' own red tail and yellow tale. "You're like some exotic type fish, I wonder if you're adopted." Ty laughed as Anders punched him on the arm.

"I'm not adopted. Mum's tail was yellow, and grandpa's is red!" Anders pouted.

"Anyways," Ty said ignoring Anders obvious pouting, "Why were you up here anyways? It seems like it's still storming pretty bad up there." He poked a lone piece of falling wood. "Did a ship crash?"

Anders shrugged. "I wanted to see if I could collect more stuff from the ships. Storms are a good time for it because the waves knock things off the ships."

Ty shook his head. "I know I should be stopping you from this for Mike's sake, but I know you won't. But why do you have such an utter fascination with the world up there? It can't be all that great." He said, pulling the bag away from Anders as they started on their way back to Palmonia.

"Come on Ty, you used to come with me all the time! You're just as interested as I am about the surface." Anders said trying to tug back his bag. "But Mike crushed your dreams of seeing the human world, didn't he?"

Ty paused, and let go of the bag. He turned to Anders with a serious expression. "Honestly Anders, you know he's just trying to protect us from being killed. You remember what happened to mum and dad. You're just adding so much stress and worry to Mike's already busy life. He didn't want to be king at all!"

Anders was silent, staring straight ahead of him to the dots of light that he knew was their home. He finally spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "I know he worries, but that doesn't mean he should be so strict about shit. I just can't see how he thinks a world that can makes such weird but wonderful things could be so bad..." He sighed.

"I wonder the same thing too, sometimes. I can't help but admit it." As they neared the city, Ty took a look at Anders' bag. "You might want to hide that. I'll go tell Mike you're on your way. I think he wanted to tell you something besides reiterating the fact that you're not meant to be going outside the city."

Anders nodded and quickly swam off to go hide the things he had found back in the cavern with the rest of the stuff he had. After organizing them fairly quickly, he couldn't help but sink to the bottom of the cavern and land with a soft thump on the sand. He looked up as he buried his fingers in the cold sand as he tried to remember the feel of it warm and dry. And that man...Anders hoped that he was alright, and that someone had found him. Anders also took the time to remove the cloth that was wrapping his wound and replaced it with a seaweed wrap. Anders knew that Mike would only get more angry if he saw something so blatantly from the surface.

He stared at his tail as well. He hadn't told Ty about what he had thought he'd seen when he had been sitting with that man on the beach. Ty read a lot more than he did, so perhaps he actually knew something about what had happened to Anders. Anders quickly returned home after that, knowing that if Mike were forced to wait any longer he'd end up trying to lock Anders up in his room...again. When he arrived in the throne room Mike immediately swam up to him with a look of mixed worry and anger.

"Anders, where have you been? You were meant to be here to practice your song for the festival!"

Anders wanted to point out that he had at least been singing the song while he wasn't at the rehearsal, but that wouldn't have helped in the slightest with the way that Mike looked. So he settled for looking somewhat guilty despite not feeling very guilty at all.

Mike just sighed at Anders' silence before pulling him to a more secluded area where other merpeople weren't swimming around putting up decorations. Anders took note that the crown perched on his hair was lopsided, and that he looked much older than he usually did. That was saying something, because when he abruptly was forced to take the throne after their parents died, he seemed to have aged many years in the time span of a few months. Mike turned around and paused when Anders suddenly reached up and fixed Mike's crown. Anders noticed a faint ghost of a shadow on Mike's lips before he took a deep breath.

"Ty told you that I wanted to talk to you about something, right?" Mike asked quietly.

Anders nodded, remembering the slightly offhand line that Ty had said to him earlier before swimming off to hide his things.

"Well, you know how now that I am king, and you're second in line..." He started, before pausing trying to find his words. "Um...We just had word from a messenger today. From the other kingdom a ways away from here."

"I don't see where you're going with this..." Anders said quietly, despite the fact that he had a very bad feeling that he did know where this was going.

"We've gotten an offer for a marriage. And as I'm king and wouldn't be able to leave the kingdom, the task falls to you. Y'know, being first in line." Mike ended awkwardly, crown going lopsided again.

Anders was silent, and without a word he turned abruptly and swam away, ignoring Mike's calls. He practically flew into Ty's room and Ty only just barely got out of the way, causing Anders to crash abruptly into the wall. Ty helped Anders upright again, with a look of concern on his face.

"What did Mike want to tell you anyways? He wouldn't tell me." Ty asked.

Axl chose that moment to swim in. He had a look of confusion set on his face. "Anders? I saw you swim past me really fast, what happened?"

Anders groaned and allowed himself to sink onto the ground into a sitting position. "Mike told me that some other kingdom wants me to marry their son or daughter or whatever." Anders realizing that he hadn't even bothered figuring out whether or not it was a mermaid or a merman.

His brothers' eyes widened simultaneously. "But you of all people wouldn't get married!" Axl exclaimed. "I thought you'd be the type who'd end up getting caught in some human's fishnet!" Ty immediately hit Axl on the head at that comment. "Hey! I was only telling the truth! Anders goes up to the surface so often I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet!"

Ty shook his head. "That doesn't mean you should say it out loud. Now go tell Mike that Anders is fine," Ty ignored the glare sent his way by Anders. "And that he shouldn't bother him for awhile."

Axl was still frowning, but swam off to do as he was told.

Ty turned to Anders again. "You never fully told me why you were so close to the shore, Anders. I mean even if you were following a ship, you'd never be that close. Even you aren't that stupid. Axl is right."

"I had to save that man." He said simply, turning away from Ty.

"Man? What man?"

"When I was by the ship, watching things fall from it and trying to collect things, I hadn't noticed how close I got to the surface. I know, a fucking stupid move on my part. That's probably when I got cut. But I heard a loud splash, and saw a man unconscious, sinking in the water." Anders explained, playing with one of the long flowy fins on his tail. "I couldn't let him die, so I sort of swam him back to shore and stayed with him for a bit."

Ty groaned and fell down next to Anders. "Seriously? Someone could have seen you! He could have seen you! I agree that it was a good idea to save that man, but to stay there?"

"Shut up, I know it was stupid. I guess I was hoping that he wouldn't freak out and answer some of my questions. But it didn't turn out like that..."

Ty's eyes widened. "Don't tell me he did see you?"

"That, I'm not sure. I sat with him for a bit, singing. I guess even if I wasn't at rehearsal I was still singing that damn song. But I felt sort of funny. I looked at my tail and it looked like it was splitting! And it hurt a bit too. I panicked and swam back into the water. I saw the guy's eyes open right before I disappeared."

"Your tail splitting?" Ty raised an eyebrow. "Is that even possible?"

Anders threw his hands in the air. "Fuck if I know! I just know that that's what it looked like to me at least! I was hoping you'd know."

Ty shrugged. "I'm about as clueless as you, sorry bro."

Anders was silent before nodding to himself. "Well, there's only one thing that I can do now." He quickly got up from his spot on the ground and looked determined.

"Wait...Anders what are you doing?" Ty asked worriedly. "No, don't tell me-"

"I'm going back to the surface and that beach to see what the hell was happening to me! Maybe I'll even find that man again...Because like hell am I staying here and being married off to some fucker I don't even know!"

"So instead you're going to go to the surface to find some human you don't even know? Solid planning there Anders."

"Thanks." Anders grinned at him before swimming out.

Ty yelled after him. "Don't take that as a compliment dammit! You know Mike is going to get fucking pissed at you!"

But it was too late, Anders was already off, determined to figure out what had happened to him when he was sitting on the beach. He thought back to that man again as well. He doubted the man would still be sitting on the beach. He'd had to have been found by now. It was a nice enough thought though, meeting that man again. He had so many questions he could have asked him, all ruined by him panicking about his tail. But he was determined now. He was going to get to the bottom of this.


End file.
